Six months ago I published a guide to the complete disassembly of the Creative Zen Vision W personal media player. At the end of that post I theorized as to how one could upgrade the hard drive when larger ones came available.
Well now, thanks to the generosity of Aaron Vronko and RapidRepair.com for supplying a 100GB drive; and Dan, one of my loyal readers, for playing guinea pig using my previous post to repair his Zen, I now have the largest drive in any Zen W in the world – and the theory is now a reality!
Here is how it was done.
First of all, you need to order yourself a new hard drive. Clearly I would recommend ordering the exact one that I upgraded with from RapidRepair.com. It is the 100GB Toshiba MK1011GAH.
After you get your new drive, follow my instructions on the Creative Zen Vision W Teardown page. Once you get to the point where you are down to the bare hard drive follow these steps:
- Download the latest firmware from the Creative site.
- Using the Creative Media Explorer, create a backup directory on your computer’s hard drive and copy all of your content from the Zen to the computer. You MUST do this or you will lose all of your data when you remove the existing hard drive. After the upgrade you will use this data to restore the Zen back to normal.
Remove the tape on the existing hard drive connector and, with a tiny flathead screwdriver, flip the white ZIF socket clip up and gently remove the ribbon cable.- Remove the blue rubber shock protectors from the edges of the old drive and set aside to reinstall on the new drive.
- Gently insert the ribbon cable into the ZIF socket on the new drive taking care to insert it with the first pin aligned to the correct side. If you happen to put the ribbon in backwards, when the Zen boots the menu will not work correctly. If that happens just turn the drive over and insert the ribbon cable the other way.
After the new drive is inserted replace the red tape over the ribbon cable and Zif socket and re-assemble the Zen. You will have to trim back the rubber shock protector a little so it fits the shape of the new drive. See the attached image for an example.- Power on the Zen, and it will boot into the Recovery Mode menu.
- Select the Format All option to format the drive for use.
- Select the Reload Firmware option, plug the Zen into the USB port on your computer, and execute the firmware which you previously downloaded.
The firmware installer will begin and after a minute or two when it completes you can disconnect the Zen and power it on. At this point it should boot up into the full interface except that the drive is completely empty.- Use the Creative Media Explorer software to reload all of your music, movies, photos, etc. and enjoy your new gigantic hard drive!
Once you’ve completed the upgrade you could, in theory, order this case to repurpose your old drive and use it as a USB external storage device. However, I have not tried this so I am not advocating it. Perhaps if they send me one to test out I’ll give an update later if it works.
Please let me know if anything is unclear or you have suggestions on how to improve this article.
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Six months ago I published a guide to the complete disassembly of the Creative Zen Vision W personal media player. At the end of that post I theorized as to how one could upgrade the hard drive when larger ones came available. 
Remove the tape on the existing hard drive connector and, with a tiny flathead screwdriver, flip the white ZIF socket clip up and gently remove the ribbon cable.
After the new drive is inserted replace the red tape over the ribbon cable and Zif socket and re-assemble the Zen. You will have to trim back the rubber shock protector a little so it fits the shape of the new drive. See the attached image for an example.
The firmware installer will begin and after a minute or two when it completes you can disconnect the Zen and power it on. At this point it should boot up into the full interface except that the drive is completely empty.
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I want to know is there any way to buy the screen of it..
I smashed mine’s thanks
Yikes Kenny. That’s a good question. I’m guessing it would cost as much to get a new screen as to buy a new one, but you’d have to talk to Creative about that. Sorry.
John
Would this work on the regular Zen Vision (non widescreen)? I assume it would, but would the hard drive fit?
it could possibly fit with some finagling, into a zen vision m. it would easily fit in the 60gb version. the 30gb version has a 5mm thick hard drive and this one is 7 or 8 mm thick, so you would have to find some way to make up that extra few mm.
I have the case from Digital Intelligence on order and will be glad to report on how it works as soon as I get it all set up.
The 100GB drive from RapidRepair is $280. I found them at Mini-Drives.net for $215.
Dan
Dan,
I’m looking forward to your feedback on the case, so please let us know when you get it!
John
What about clone the disk with norton ghost?, maybe using the track by track method works.
I’m sure this would work, but I just found it easier to back up the content to the drive and then re-install it.
I’d be interested in a follow-up about battery life and any operational hiccups you see. Have you tried loading more than 30 gigs of files onto the player? If so, how much, and have you had any problems?
I’ve put around 30-35GB of data on the device, but not more than that. So as a result I can’t say that I’ve tested it at it’s max capacity. But having said that, operationally I can’t tell any difference whatsoever. It works exactly the same as before. It just has more room.
From a battery standpoint I spent all afternoon testing it to see if there was any noticable change there. I watched two full length movies from the device while having it connected to the TV and this only ran the battery down to about 50%. After that, I left it playing another full length movie, but this time unconnected and at the end of that the batter was down to about the 33% mark.
The bottom line is that I was able to watch 3 movies back to back for a combined time of 6 hours and still had some battery left at the end, so I’m going to say that there seems to be no difference from a power consumption standpoint.
[...] Details and a step-by-step guide on how to do just that, on the link. [...]
[...] People have made the case for choosing a Creative Zen W over both the iPod or the Zune (16:9 display, DivX support, 4.3-inch screen), but the storage size has always been a little lacking, even in the 60GB model. By upgrading the drive to 100GB, you’re one-upping the iPod in both space and screen size. The process looks fairly straightforward, and as long as you follow each step to the letter, you shouldn’t have to worry about bricking your player. [OneMansBlog via MAKE] [...]
[...] [onemansblog, via gizmodo] Sphere: Related Content [...]
[...] How to Upgrade Your Creative Zen Vision W Hard Drive to 100GB People have made the case for choosing a Creative Zen W over both the iPod or the Zune (16:9 display, DivX support, 4.3-inch screen), but the storage size has always been a little lacking, even in the 60GB model. By upgrading the drive to 100GB, you're one-upping the iPod in both space and screen size. The process looks fairly straightforward, and as long as you follow each step to the letter, you shouldn't have to worry about bricking your player. [OneMansBlog via MAKE] Read the complete post at http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2007/07/how_to_upgrade_your_creative_z.html Filed under: Entertainment, media players, portable, upgrade, Creative, hard drives, zen vision w [...]
[...] Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video [...]
Im hanging out for something bigger – maybe when these drives reach 160GB I shall upgrade my Zen
u can use this to make your drive a usb drive.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Toshiba-iPod-1-8-USB-IDE-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-Adapter_W0QQitemZ130136527834QQihZ003QQcategoryZ74949QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Hi i’ve got this Zen Xtra(no vision) with a broken hd i’d like to put a new one do you know how i can do or someone who did it before?
thank you
bezerker,
I also have the Zen Jukebox Xtra (40GB) and changed it out to a 100GB drive. It’s actually fairly easy. I used a Fujitsu Model MHV2100AT. Just pop the front cover off, remove the battery and take out the 4 screws. They’re the only ones there so you don’t have to worry about getting the right ones. Flip the unit over and take out the 2 VERY small screws at the bottom and remove the cover. The drive should be easy to get out at this point, just GENTLY pry out the top and be careful not to bend the connector. Install the new drive and put all the screws back in. The side cover on the control wheel may fall out but it’s easy to just drop back in. You need to format the new disk when you power up and reload the OS, you can get it from Creative. Most drives have 6 screws holding them together, do not remove them as you take a chance of destroying the drive if you do.
Good luck,
Dan
John,
The case arrived today. It’s a really nice metal case that snaps together. I think it’s well made and looks good and was easy to put together. Only slightly larger than a buisness card. It’s a bit on the spendy side but hey, it works. I had to use My Computer, Manage, Disk Management, Format to get my comp. to see the disk but it works great. It uses the mini-USB plug. The folks at Digital Intelligence were easy to work with too.
I formatted it with 2 partitions and encrypted one of them with no problems.
Dan
[...] John added a 100 GB hard drive to a Creative Zen Vision W, not bad! Link. [...]
[...] People have made the case for choosing a Creative Zen W over both the iPod or the Zune (16:9 display, DivX support, 4.3-inch screen), but the storage size has always been a little lacking, even in the 60GB model. By upgrading the drive to 100GB, you’re one-upping the iPod in both space and screen size. The process looks fairly straightforward, and as long as you follow each step to the letter, you shouldn’t have to worry about bricking your player. [OneMansBlog via MAKE] [...]
[...] People have made the case for choosing a Creative Zen W over both the iPod or the Zune (16:9 display, DivX support, 4.3-inch screen), but the storage size has always been a little lacking, even in the 60GB model. By upgrading the drive to 100GB, you’re one-upping the iPod in both space and screen size. The process looks fairly straightforward, and as long as you follow each step to the letter, you shouldn’t have to worry about bricking your player. [OneMansBlog via MAKE] [...]
[...] Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video [...]
[...] DIY: How to Upgrade Your Creative Zen Vision W Hard Drive to 100GB Technology July 23rd, 2007 People have made the case for choosing a Creative Zen W over both the iPod or the Zune (16:9 display, DivX support, 4.3-inch screen), but the storage size has always been a little lacking, even in the 60GB model. By upgrading the drive to 100GB, you’re one-upping the iPod in both space and screen size. The process looks fairly straightforward, and as long as you follow each step to the letter, you shouldn’t have to worry about bricking your player. [OneMansBlog via MAKE] [...]
[...] Modder stuffs 100GB HDD in Creative Zen Vision W Technology July 24th, 2007 Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video [...]
Hello,
I have a Creative Zen Touch ( 20GB ), is it possible to upgrade this to a larger Hard Drive ?
Greetings,
Soxbrother
Soxbrother,
It looks like you should be able to upgrade to anything up to a 120GB drive if you want. I suspect it’s a 2.5 inch form factor drive, in that case you can get about anysize you want for a decent pricce. The only real way to tell is to open it up and take a look but I’d say yes. Creative doesn’t appear to support the Touch any longer.
Dan
Hello,
I have read this somewhere that the Zen Touch uses 1.8-inch hard drives. Is it still possible to put a larger drive in you think ?
Greetings,
Soxbrother
Soxbrother,
I do believe it is possible to upgrade. It’s going to be a bit expensive but ya, you should be able to. If you really like your Zen Touch then it’s also well worth it. Mostly it’ll depend on how thick your drive is and how much room there is inside your Zen.
Dan
Ok, thanks.
I’ll try it, if it works, I’ll let you know.
Do you perhaps know a link with detailed pictures for how to disassemble a zen touch and of the harddrive connection, … ?
Soxbrother,
I don’t know of any place that would have pictures of disassembly. For my Zen Xtra I just opened it up and started in. For the Vision W we were all lucky enough that John opened his first. My only advice would be go slow and don’t force anything. Good luck.
D
[...] Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video [...]